A mum and her three children had a lucky escape after their washing machine burst into flames at their home in West Belfast.

Samantha Millar, 30, had just put some washing in the machine and was getting the dinner ready for the family when she smelt smoke at 4pm on Monday.

"I thought it must be the oven and that it needed cleaned but I walked out to check it and there was smoke coming from under the door," said the mum-of-three.

When she opened the door to her utility room Samantha saw flames coming from the washing machine.

"I ran back out grabbed the kids and called the emergency services and went to our neighbours," she said.

Crews from Springfield fire station were at Samantha's terraced house at West Circular Road in the Springmartin area of Belfast within minutes.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hosereel jet and to extinguish the blaze.

Samantha and her three children - six-year-old Tilly Leslie, three-year-old Alfie Leslie and three-month-old Tobias Leslie - were treated by fire crews and paramedics for minor smoke inhalation at the scene.

The cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical fault.

The damaged washing machine

Samantha, who has only been renting the property for a few months, said she wanted to thank the fire service, paramedics and her neighbours Diane and Gary who helped the family in the wake of the fire.

"It is every mum's worst nightmare," she said.

"I do not know how I did it getting them out. The fire brigade were brilliant and whoever answered my 999 call for making sense of what I was saying.

"My neighbours Diane and Gary were fantastic too. Gary had been on night shift but he jumped up and ran into our house to turn off the electrics."

Samantha added: "It could have been a lot worse. A lot of people put their washing on and go to bed or go do the shopping. If we had done any of that we could have been in our beds and the fire could have spread."

However, despite the drama for the family, it has inspired three-year-old Alfie to become a firefighter when he grows up.

"He now wants to be a fire man when he grows up. The firefighters told him he has to east his vegetables if he wants to do that though."